Some freshly made pictures illustrating the odd characteristics of a newly added late no. 674 Austin Champ, without driver, with dark green plastic hubs and black three spoke plastic steering wheel (no box, unfortunately). Reference works are not very clear about the presence or not of a driver on some of these models. The driver might have got lost, but I do not see the slightest trace of a possible former presence of a driver. A plastic one may have left no clearly visible damage or slighter traces. On the other hand this may have been a final desperate attempt of the factory to reduce costs, around 1970. The 1970 catalogue picture of the final appearance of this Champ might have been of use, but it still shows the older traditional version, with diecast hubs, driver etc. The dark green hubs are remarkable too, because other contemporaries have plastic hubs in a neatly matching army green colour.

Well, for the record, your opinions and comments are appreciated, kind regards, Jan  

Hi Chris, that is an interesting addition. Congratulations!

In the light of my previous post you can imagine that I am curious of the exact way the driver is attached to its seat.

So there is a 'dot' of glue between its bottom and the seat? And is there still a pivot under his bottom, protruding through the seat? Perhaps you could show some more details?

If the glueing is the standard way of fixation with these late plastic drivers, it should have left traces whatsoever on mine - if it had been present initially. Kind regards, Jan 

That's indeed the evidence I was looking for. Thank you, Chris!

These are nice finds, Chris, the flimsy export boxes are so vulnerable that they have often gone, leaving the mint model behind. I guess this also may have happened with my two examples shown. Both came from different, non-British countries and may also have been packed in such visipac export boxes. As I found a second example recently, now with driver, I understand what may have happened with my first one. When the new addition with plastic driver arrived the driver was carefully separately packed. Indeed, it is very easy to be removed and get lost, because there is no firm fixation at all (and leaving no trace of fixation below the driver’s seat either). The pin is short and hardly sticks in place. That’s why the previous one – although hardly or not played with – must have lost its driver. I wonder if these plastic drivers were separately available in those days, but I doubt it. Anyone may comment on this. Possibly Chris’s driver was glued in with a tiny drop of glue by a previous owner in order not to get lost.

Still, my example without driver remains a remarkable one, as its plastic wheels have an undeniably darker green colour, different from the regular olive shade of green of the military models. Some photos below, my first issue with the driver with widely spread arms included. Kind regards, Jan

That UN version is a desirable, hard to find model indeed, Kas!

A photo below to demonstrate the missing box I was looking for. I found it on eBay at a very friendly price the other day. So now, three years after, my dark green wheeled Austin Champ is complete, with driver and correct box!